We've known almost nothing about David Fincher's "Cliff Booth." The only confirmed detail was that it takes place eight years after Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Even the trailers have been deliberately vague, all mood and no story.
That changes today. The Paris Theater in New York, which will screen the film in November, has posted what looks to be the first full plot synopsis on its website:
Murder, blackmail, theft, extortion — just another summer in Hollywood. It’s 1977, eight years since Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) encountered the Manson family in Quentin Tarantino’s parallel history of 1969, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” In THE FURTHER MIS-ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH, directed by David Fincher from a new script by Tarantino, the fairytale is over. Los Angeles no longer needs a hippie-slaying stuntman the way it did. But Hollywood will always have problems, problems that can only be solved by someone with Cliff’s unique (occasionally extralegal) abilities. When he’s not earning his keep bartending or as a projectionist, Cliff Booth is a fixer — solving situations for Hollywood’s great and, sometimes, not so good.
He’s curious when he gets a call from talent agent Karen Crosby (Elizabeth Debicki), on behalf of her client, TV megastar Charlie Peters (Scott Caan) — a man known for doing his own stunts. And he’s further entertained and intrigued when he meets other characters in Charlie’s world, from his knowing wife Toni (Carla Gugino) to pro football champion turned screen star Roderick “Hot Rod” Harrison (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Then there are the Verdusco brothers (Matt Groove and JB Tadena), mysterious gangsters causing mayhem across the city. What was once a fairytale is now a crime story — a cocktail of violence, ambition, and desire that could only happen in LA.
So there it is. A Tarantino script about a stuntman-turned-fixer navigating blackmail and extortion in late-'70s L.A. It honestly sounds like a noir written by Shane Black. Coincidentally, Black's "The Nice Guys" was also set in 1977 Los Angeles, with mismatched guys stumbling through a seedy Hollywood mystery. Add a talent agent, a TV star, a football player, and gangsters, and you've got the kind of story Black lives for.
Of course, the difference is who's behind the camera. Black tends to play this stuff loose and funny. Fincher is the least loose filmmaker alive.
Earlier today, we got our first look at Joseph Kosinski's "Miami Vice '85," which is now filming. The cast is sprawling, and we can add yet another talented actor to the mix.